Welcome to IHO, your partner for standardization and harmonization!

Living Harmonization

We are a spin-off company from the University of Heidelberg. Our long-standing expertise in molecular diagnostics is the basement for our activities which will help to improve your laboratory performance. Comparability of results derived from different laboratories is a major endeavor in times of international standardization of molecular techniques, especially in the field of management of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Focusing on BCR-ABL1 quantification we facilitate the achievement of utmost sensitive and internationally aligned results in your laboratory.

Taking clinical decisions based on solid

molecular results

Our aim is to improve your

sensitivity and comparability of molecular results.

As clinical and laboratory scientists we have been helping to build up and/or coach >60 molecular laboratories in 28 countries. Using a high-performance online tool we can help you to judge the validity of qualitative and quantitative PCR reactions applying certified plasmid materials and calibrators. Hereby we guarantee the early detection of contaminations or inefficient PCR reactions saving your time. We provide a remote quality assurance system and an alignment to the International Scale (IS) in every single PCR run. Alternatively we can allocate conversion factors to your laboratory after exchange of patient sample aliquots.
Further, we can provide a powerful LIS with customized features either as online solution (web server and security features in Germany) or as local solution in your data center.

Educating laboratory personnel in order to increase PCR sensitivity and/or helping to get accreditation according to DIN EN ISO 15189:2014 is another module of our portfolio.

More than 15 years of experience

Our expertise in BCR-ABL monitoring is reflected by numerous publications in the field

As one of the first laboratories in Europe, we have establishes quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR) for BCR-ABL mRNA. Preanalytic, analytic and postanalytic aspects were considered during the years and implemented in peer-reviewed publications. Since the German data derived from the CML-Study IV (comparison of several Imatinib-based treatment arms), our data recently emphasized the prognostic impact of both early molecular response within 3 and 6 months, but also the beneficial effect of deeper molecular response after 12 to 48 months on progression-free and overall survival.